An other this time quite serious review of the Bessa III

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pstevenin

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Sorry, this time it is in french only.

http://www.galerie-photo.com/bessa-667.html

Bessa Heliar is compared to the Blad 80 planar.

plus an user review : http://www.galerie-photo.com/bessa-667_test-images.html

Galerie photo is a reference french site for MF & LF.

Emmanuel Bigler is a very respected optical engineer & teacher in one of the best optical enginneering school in France.

Let me know if need some translation, french is a quite precise & nuanced idiom (as english of course!) . I can get the point in french & try to translate that with the few english words I know (usually at least on par with google, the semantic on top of that :angel🙂
 
"Le Bessa 667 annoncé à la Photokina de 1998"

Has it been that long already? 😉 Didn't have the time to read the whole thing yet but skimmed through it and the results are pretty interesting. I'm happy to see how well the Bessa performs in comparison to the Hassy up to f11 as I hardly ever use a smaller aperture than that.
 
3894500650_53ebc602b7.jpg

I was trying the Bessa III with some outdated TriX (great excuse for using it up). For some reason I remember that it was @ 5.6 and 1/15 (it was a dark and gloomy day). I like the drop in the DOF here.
TriX @320/Rodinal 1:100/ stand development 60 min.
 
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From the review (Google translated):

"Viewfinder: very comfortable even for a lens wearer like me."

I've read this elsewhere but don't find it so. With my glasses, everything is crisp but I can only just see the whole 6x6 frame, and need to change viewpoint to read shutter speed. It's only when I remove my glasses that the viewfinder excels. I've tried a number of diopter lenses and none correct my astigmatism fully. I'm overdue for a new prescription and am considering getting an eyepiece correction lens made to match (probably not cheap) or maybe even contacts. I'm curious though why others don't seem to find glasses such a problem. Different lens to eye distance?
 
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I find the finder very easy to see, although I don't usually look at anything but the frame lines and focus patch. It's very accurate for a short base RF. And, it's a whole heck of a lot lighter than my Hasselblad for carrying around all day, although I'll continue to use the 'blad for when I need lenses other than the 80. I also find that it encourages a different way of shooting than the 'blad does, makes me a bit more spontaneous.

These were shot on Fujicolor 800z in deep shade wide open. You can see them larger here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mikepeters/3959892495/ and: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mikepeters/3959892933/

The lens seem to be perfectly sharp at all apertures.
 

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